Flowery Dreaming

Love-in-A-Mist

Romantic cottage flowers may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the name Nigella!  Yates Nigella Love in a Mist, is a very pretty annual flower with delicate fern like foliage and ice white blooms with rich mascara-like stamens.

In February in temperate areas (delay until Autumn in cool zones), seed should be sown direct where they are to grow in a sunny or partly shaded area and covered only lightly with some Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix.

Reaching 90 cm tall, they make a gorgeous cottage style border or bedding plant.

Trim spent flowers regularly (or cut flowers for a vase) to encourage a longer flowering period.

A Gold Star for Your Garden

Bring some golden sunshine into your Autumn garden, by planting a fantastic perennial called Rudbeckia ‘Little Goldstar’. Also known as Black Eyed Susans, rudbeckias provide several months of vibrant and cheerful colour, from late Summer right through into late Autumn and early Winter.

Rudbeckia ‘Little Goldstar’ is a new variety that has been bred for an abundance of gold flowers with a striking black central seed cone. It has a neat compact habit, reaching around 40 cm high and wide and makes both a great container or garden bed display. They’ll enjoy growing in full sun and will tolerate low water conditions once they’re established. An added bonus is that ‘Little Goldstar’ flowers are attractive to bees, butterflies and birds.

Rudbeckias can be trimmed lightly back once flowering has finished. To help keep the plants healthy, regularly apply Yates Thrive Flower Fruit Soluble Fertiliser around the root zone. It’s rich in potassium to promote lots of beautiful flowers.

Rudbeckia’s bright yellow flowers combine wonderfully with other warm toned flowers like calendula and gaillardia. They can also be planted together with mauve and purple flowers like salvia and aster, to create an eye catching, contrasting sea of Autumn colour.

Rudbeckia ‘Little Goldstar’ information and images courtesy of livingfashion.co.nz

Gaura ‘Sparkle White’, the Breeze Dancer

This pretty perennial has graceful white flowers that dance in the breeze. Also known as Whirling Butterflies, Yates Gaura Sparkle White flowers from early Spring right through until late Summer.

Perfect for adding white accents and delicate texture to small space gardens or containers.

Starships – Go Boldly into Your Garden…

If you’re after bold colour for a sheltered, partly shaded area in your garden then you can’t go past Cinerarias.

Yates Cineraria ‘Starships’ is a compact variety, growing to around 30 cm tall, with large flower heads in bright colourful clusters.

Cineraria seed needs light to germinate, so the very fine seed should only be pressed into trays of Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix, misted gently with water and kept in a warm place. For best results, cover the tray with plastic cling film to help keep the mix moist.

Seedlings can be transplanted out into the garden or into a pot when they are large enough to handle.

Planted en masse, cinerarias are breathtaking so it’s well worth growing lots of seedlings. Cinerarias grown in shady conditions display the most intense colour's and flowering potted cinerarias can be brought indoors for a few days at a time to create a beautiful table centrepiece.

Flower care:

• Protect new cineraria seedlings from destructive snails and slugs with a light sprinkling of Yates Blitzem Snail Slug Pellets.

• Once the cineraria seedlings are established, feed each week with Yates Thrive Roses Flowers Liquid Plant Food. It’s specially formulated for flowering plants, with the right balance of nutrients to encourage both healthy green leaf growth and lots of flowers.
  
  

Chocoholics be prepared!

There is a plant just for you – Chocolicious!

For the dedicated chocoholic gardener, when eating chocolate is not enough to satisfy those chocolate cravings, then you can grow Cosmos ‘Choca Mocha’. It’s a compact, multi-branching perennial cosmos from Proven Winners that grows to around 30 cm tall with chocolate scented and coloured flowers.

It flowers profusely during the warmer months and can be grown in either garden beds or pots. Plant a ‘Choca Mocha’ next to a path to enjoy its chocolatey scent as you walk by.

‘Choca Mocha’ does best in well-drained soil in a spot that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day. Once flowering has finished, it can be cut back hard.

In cool zones, ‘Choca Mocha’ becomes dormant during winter and their dahlia-like tuber can be lifted and stored for planting in spring or left in the ground to re-grow when the warm weather returns.